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Zeus
Zeus is the King of the Gods, ruler of Olympus and the God of the sky. He is also the main antagonist of God of War II and God of War III, and the father of the Spartan warrior Kratos. In Greek Mythology In Greek Mythology, Zeus was the king of the Gods, ruler of Mount Olympus, and god of thunder. His symbols were the Eagle, Oak Tree and Thunderbolt. Zeus was the child of the Cronos and Rhea, and the youngest of all his siblings. It was Zeus who led his brothers and sisters into battle against the Titans, claiming the throne of his father and banishing the Titans to Tartarus. He then married his sister Hera, goddess of love and marriage. Zeus was well known for his erotic affairs with beautiful mortal women, resulting in many godly and heroic offspring, including Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Hermes, Persephone, Dionysus, Perseus, Heracles, Helen and Minos. With Hera, Zeus fathered Ares, Hebe, Eris, and Hephaestus. In addition, Zeus was the most prominent of gods in Greek times, being worshiped more than any of the other gods, resulting in large and frequent temples. No doubt the most powerful of the gods(Other than his brother Poseidon), his judgement and rule of Olympus was often called into question. His Roman equivalent is Jupiter In the God of War Series Birth and Early Days It was foretold that Cronos would someday be overthrown by his children. To prevent this prophecy from becoming true, the mighty Titan swallowed his children, imprisoning them within his belly. Standing on the Summit of Sacrifice, Rhea, distressed by the loss of her children, saved her last child, Zeus, by tricking Cronos into swallowing a stone wrapped in cloth. She summoned an eagle to take Zeus to an island far away from the watchful eyes of Cronos. It was on this island that Gaia, mother of the Titans, would raise him and nurture his desire to free his brothers and sisters, overthrowing Cronos and becoming King of The Gods. Great War After freeing his brothers and sisters, Zeus declared war on the Titans, consumed with feelings of revenge. Betraying Gaia, the very Titan who had raised him, he waged war on all the Titans for the sins of only one. The new rulers of the world, the Gods, calling themselves Olympians, fought against their predecessors with great ferocity and power. The battle between the Olympians and the Titans formed the landscape of the mortal world, shaking the earth with massive earthquakes and crumbling mountains. During the war, Zeus created the all powerful Blade of Olympus, which was used to banish the Titans to the foulest pits of Tartarus, using the Gauntlet of Zeus to create the chains that bind them. The evils bred from the long ten years of battle posed another threat to the Ruler of Olympus, and he commissioned Hephaestus, the smith god, to build Pandora's Box, in order to house the evils. Unbeknownst to him, Athena called forth a power that transcended any God, Hope, and placed inside the box, to counteract the evils should the box be opened. When Zeus asked the mighty Smith God where to hide the box, he was lead into believing that it was on the back of his father, the Titan Cronos. Using the architect, Pathos Verdes III, he chained the Titan and sentenced him to wander the Desert of Lost Souls for eternity. Little did the great Zeus know that the events that had transpired in those days would doom him, thousands of years later. The Prophecy Some time after the Titanomachy, an Oracle foresaw a marked warrior would bring about the end of the Olympian Gods, including Zeus. Wanting to prevent this from ever transpiring, he sent out a search for the marked one. During this search, Ares and Athena came across young Kratos and his younger brother Deimos in Sparta. Since the latter bore a red birthmark they presumed Deimos was the marked warrior the prophecy spoke of. Ares and Athena forcefully took Deimos with them (using a centaur army to assault the city), despite Kratos' attempts to save him. Zeus then condemned Deimos to never-ending torture in Death's domain. Ares and Kratos See also: God of War At some point, Zeus had an affair with Callisto. The circumstances are unknown, but the affair resulted in a young child named Kratos. Kratos was a strong boy and a mighty warrior with unstoppable rage and ambition. Hera, displeased at Zeus for fathering yet another bastard, demanded he kill the boy, fearing only destruction will come from his existence. Zeus, at this point still a somewhat benevolent and caring figure, took pity on the child, and refused. Later on in Kratos' life, having brutally slain his own wife and child in blind anger, infused by the God of War, Kratos sought to rid himself of the nightmares by devoting his services to the gods of Olympus. Around halfway through Kratos' penance, Zeus was one of the many gods that fell victim to an enchanted slumber, orchestrated by Morpheus when the sun god, Helios, was knocked from the sky. Kratos eventually discovered that this was the work of Persephone, who intended to use him to empower the Titan, Atlas, in order to destroy the Pillar of the World and bring an end to all life, as well as her own suffering. Fortunately for Zeus and the other gods, Kratos was able to defeat the Queen of the Underworld and save Helios, forcing Morpheus to retreat. What they did not know was that Kratos had been forced to relinquish any hopes of reuniting with his beloved daughter in the process of saving the world, pushing his disillusionment with the gods ever closer to open hatred and rebellion. Near the end of Kratos' service to the gods, Ares besieged the city of Athens to gain favor from Zeus over his half-sister, Athena. Zeus had forbidden the gods from waging war on each other, and in some regards was afraid of the rampant war god's power, so he allowed Athena to receive help from Kratos, who was told that defeating Ares would complete his penance. During his quest, Kratos met Zeus himself within the damaged city of Athens, where he was given Zeus' Fury, the ability to wield and throw powerful thunderbolts. In addition, Zeus, in the mortal guise of the Grave Digger, created a portal to the Underworld through a grave he claimed to be digging for Kratos, allowing the Spartan to escape the realm of the dead late in his adventure. When Ares seemingly killed Kratos and took Pandora's Box, for himself, he yelled to the skies, cursing his father for constantly favoring Athena and asking if Zeus could finally see what his son was capable of. He declared that he would not hesitate to use the box against Olympus itself, but then Kratos, having fought his way out of the Underworld, used a bolt of Zeus' Fury to reclaim it, at last opening the ancient artifact and harnessing its power to destroy his former master. Zeus and the gods guided Kratos to defeat Ares, as he was the only real threat to Olympus. With Ares dead, the Olympians forgave Kratos for the crime of killing his own family (although, to Kratos' dismay, they were unable to remove the horrible memories from his mind), and made him the new God of War. It is later revealed that Zeus and the other gods fell prey to the evils locked away in Pandora's Box after Kratos opened it to defeat Ares. Apparently, the King of the Gods didn't realize that if Kratos used the Box, the evils would be released onto them, rather hoping that the evils would fuel Kratos. As a result, Zeus became slowly overwhelmed by his personal plague (changing him from the somewhat helpful and certainly not villainous benefactor in God of War I to the antagonist in God of War II): fear that the cycle of son killing father would repeat itself. Just as Cronos killed Ouranus, and as Zeus himself defeated Cronos, the king of the gods expected that Kratos, infuriated by the revelation that not even the gods could end his nightmares, would be the son who would try to kill him and take the throne of Olympus for himself. Ironically, though the thought turns out to be a very accurate fear, it was Zeus' own actions that would bring about the premonition. Zeus' Betrayal See also: God of War: Betrayal See also: God of War II As the new God of War, Kratos was far more ruthless than Ares ever was, essentially posing the same problem Ares did to the God of the Sky, an out of control, yet all-powerful God. Kratos waged a vicious campaign in once again glorifying Sparta throughout Greece, capturing many cities. Zeus was uneasy about the newly appointed god, feeling unsafe upon his throne in Olympus. This uneasiness eventually makes Zeus decide to betray Kratos, his very own son, and create a scheme to kill him. Once, when Kratos was assaulting a city, he encountered an elaborate plot to destroy his reputation, that included assassination of Hera's favorite beast, Argos, by an unknown assassin, with blame falling entirely on Kratos. The situation was made even worse when Hades' minions attacked Kratos, and the messenger of Olympus, Ceryx, who was sent to make sure Kratos will not uncover the culprit behind the events, was defeated and slain by the infuriated God of War. His elaborate scheme to dethrone Kratos having failed, Zeus advised Athena to warn Kratos that with every city destroyed in the Spartan army's conquest, the wrath of gods (and presumably him) would grow ever stronger. Kratos failed to comply with Athena’s warning and descended from Olympus down to the island of Rhodes, where his men lay siege. As an enormous god, Kratos tore Rhodes apart and was killing and destroying everything. However, Kratos did not realize that Zeus, in the form of an eagle, had followed him. Flying over the massive Kratos, Zeus drained some of the godly power from him causing him to shrink to mortal size and made him vulnerable. Zeus then used the stolen power to animate the Colossus of Rhodes, a statue of Helios, which overlooked the city. With the metallic monster assaulting Kratos throughout Rhodes, Zeus prepared to bait his trap with the one thing Kratos could never resist: Power. Misleading Kratos into believing he was at his side, Zeus gave him the Blade of Olympus to use against the Colossus. Draining all of his godly power into the blade, Kratos defeated and destroyed the Colossus, though weakening himself in the processes. It was at this time that Zeus revealed himself to Kratos. Zeus stated that because Athena refused to undo her "mistake" he was forced to attend to this matter himself. Kratos asks Zeus why he betrayed him and Zeus replies that it was Kratos who would betray him, saying that his hands were already stained by the blood of a god and that Zeus did not want to fall into the same fate Ares did. He demanded Kratos to become his personal servant forever, but the proud god of war refused, disgusted and angry. After a seemingly hopeless battle, the god of war finally fell. At this moment, Zeus told Kratos that it didn't have to go that way and that this was of Kratos' choosing. Kratos in reply said that a choice from gods was as useless as the gods themselves. Zeus is angered by this insult and questions Kratos' standing in defying Zeus even to his last breath. He then went on to insult Kratos and say that everything that Kratos did for the Gods would now go to waste because of his "sacrilege". Claiming that Kratos will never become the ruler of Olympus and that the cycle would end here, the king of the gods took the Blade of Olympus and impaled Kratos, leaving him to die. Within seconds of his seeming victory, Zeus took the Blade of Olympus and destroyed everything in Rhodes, including both the Spartan and Rhodesian armies. While Kratos was thought to be dead, Zeus also attacked and destroyed Sparta itself while murdering many innocent Spartan women and children, partly because many Spartans had worshiped Kratos far more than the rest of Olympus, but mostly as an act of revenge for Kratos' unwillingness to succumb to him. Having done these deeds, and believing the problem with Kratos to finally be resolved, Zeus left for his throne on Mount Olympus. Kratos' Revenge Unfortunately for Zeus, Kratos was way far from finished. Aided by Gaia and the Titans, he returned back to life, journeyed to the Island of Creation, and defeated the Sisters of Fate. With time itself at his command, the Ghost of Sparta returned to the moment when Zeus betrayed and tried to kill him, emerging from a portal and knocking the Olympian to the floor. Surprised at this development, Zeus declared that he had underestimated Kratos, presuming that the Sisters of Fate had aided him. Kratos, picking up the Blade of Olympus, told Zeus that the Sisters were dead. The two combatants charged towards one another, taking to the skies as they attacked. They ended up on the Summit of Sacrifice, where an epic battle began. Kratos fought Zeus furiously and managed to deliver several powerful blows, but Zeus unleashed his full might on the vengeful warrior in the form of a deadly electrical storm. Unable to overpower the furious god, Kratos resorted to military tactics, a feigned surrender that Kratos knew would immediately stop the onslaught. Kneeling in front of the Blade of Olympus he asked Zeus to end his life, to release him from his torment. Granting what he thought was the Spartan's final request, Zeus raised the Blade and warned Kratos that his torment was just beginning. The great god was tricked, however, and Kratos, using the Golden Fleece, repelled Zeus' blow and took the Blade from him, pinning both of his arms to a rock and stabbing him back and forth with the Blade of Olympus until Athena intervened. Zeus took this opportunity to free himself and narrowly escape death at the hands of Kratos. This did not go unnoticed by Kratos, who immediately took the blade and made one more attempt on the severely weakened Zeus. However, Athena jumped in the way of what should have been the final blow, and died instead of her father. Despite this, Kratos was far more affected by Athena's death than Zeus himself, who coldly ignored her death while warning Kratos that he had started a war that he could never hope to win before fleeing, though Zeus does show remorse for his daughter's death later in the series. Before she died, Athena told Kratos that he was compelled to destroy Zeus just as Zeus did to Cronos, for Kratos was Zeus' son. This was the cycle Zeus had mentioned when he killed Kratos before. Declaring that no son should ever destroy his own father, Athena told Kratos that Zeus must live so that Olympus will prevail. God after god would deny Kratos his vengeance, for they would protect Zeus for the sake of Olympus. Kratos, watching the fallen Athena disintegrate, felt betrayed yet again and, using the Loom Chamber, he returned to the first Titan-God War, urging the Titans to accompany him back to his own time, where a defeated Zeus had fled back to Mount Olympus. Personality Outwardly, Zeus was benevolent and kind and would punish evil and oath-breakers. His noble side however, would soon fall to reveal his darker nature: domineering and at times paranoid, arrogant, treacherous, obsessive, power-hungry, selfish, tyrannical, and convinced his goals, as well as him justifying his means to hang on to his leadership and authority. These traits, as of the end of God of War III, we see come from the evils of Pandora's Box, which when opened by Kratos in the first installment, infect the Gods and change their personalities drastically. Despite this, Zeus managed to keep those traits at bay, or at the very least hidden for a while. However, when Kratos attacks Rhodes, the nagging fear of Zeus erupts, allowing his inner urges to overcome reason and intelligence-ironically, the very traits that divinity is supposed to hold intact. This exacerbation of his fear, hatred, and arrogance proved to be his downfall as when he to betray Kratos, it motivated Kratos to rebel against Olympus and exact revenge. The Second Great War Appearance Zeus appears as an old muscular white haired man. His eyes are pure white, best seen in the cutscene in God of War II where he kills Kratos. In God of War II and in the opening scene of God of War III. He wears white toga and golden arm guards but after the start of the Second Titanomachy he replaces his toga with a golden side guard that had similar powers to the Golden Fleece. Powers & Abilities Zeus' supernatural powers and natural abilities were both awe-inspiring and terrifying. He was one of the strongest gods alongside Hades and Poseidon on Olympus. He possessed the abilities of Invincibility and Projection, the ultimate powers a god can possess, allowing him to do anything he wants to and even have the power to control the world itself. Others include Flight, Sensing, Prescience, Conjuration, Conjuring The Elements, Telekinesis, Power Granting, Teleportation, Immortality, Regeneration, Super Strength and Summoning (this last one was seen in his battle against Kratos in God of War II, where he was able to summon Siren Widows to fight the Spartan). Zeus could Shape-shift, growing to massive sizes and turning into an eagle. He possessed control over the weather, especially thunder and Lightning, making his title as the strongest being in the world very likely. But, like all gods, he was vulnerable to the Blade of Olympus, his own powerful weapon. In battle, he was capable of moving at immense supernatural speed and creating powerful barriers to shield himself. He also had an attack which creates an electrical silhouette of himself, but after draining power from Gaia, Zeus could make full clones of himself that. Although not nearly as powerful as the original, his clones could still put up a very impressive fight. When Zeus unleashed the full wrath of his power, Kratos was unable to overpower him as he usually would have, even though he possessed the Blade of Olympus and had weakened him beforehand. In God of War III, after Kratos had stabbed Zeus through Gaia's heart, Zeus displayed the ability to release an astral projection of some sort. This manifestation, possibly originating from the evils that consumed him, showed limited similarities to Athena's ghostly form. His spirit fought Kratos and overpowered him, at first destroying and removing all of Kratos' weapons and equipment except for the Blades of Exile and the Blade of Olympus, then draining all of Kratos' health, magic, and item meters, and then infecting the Spartan with fear itself. It brought Kratos to the brink of death and was only defeated when Pandora helped Kratos unleash the power of Hope, at which point Zeus displayed another vulnerability, as Kratos brutally beat him to death with nothing but his bare hands. Gallery Youngzeus.jpg Zeus1.jpg Kratos vs Zeus god of war III.jpg Zeus.JPG Zeus 2.png Zeus 11.png Zeus 22.png Zeus 23.png Zeus 18.png Zeus 21.png Zeus 12.png Zeus 13.png Zeus 14.png Zeus 15.png Zeus 16.png Zeus 17.png Zeus GOW 3.jpg Zeus pandora.png Zeus 111.png Zeus 112.png Zeus 444.png Zeus 661.png Zeus 662.png Zeus 663.png Zeus 134.png Zeus death 2.png Zeus zombie.png Zeus zombie 1.png Zeus zombie 2.png Zeus zombie 3.png Zeus zombie 4.png ZeusButton.jpg Dead Zeus.jpg Zeus spirit.jpg ZEUS LIGHTINGIN.png Zeus Multiplayer.jpg Final Battle Video Part 1 250px|left Part 2 250px|left Trivia * The Olympic Games are held in honor of Zeus. * In the first game, he was voiced by Paul Eiding. In "God of War: Ghost of Sparta," he was voiced by Fred Tatasciore. In "God of War II" and "God of War III," he was voiced by Corey Burton. Corey Burton also provided the voice of Zeus in Disney's Hercules: The Animated Series. Coincidentally, Rip Torn, the voice of Hephaestus, provided the voice for Zeus in the 1997 Disney film Hercules. * In one of the bonus cut-scenes from God of War, Kratos reunites with his mother, discovering that Zeus is his father, who he would later take vengeance upon for abandoning him so many years before. Although this scene is not canon, the idea of Kratos being the son of Zeus was adapted for the sequels to come. * In mortal appearance, Zeus is still exceptionally tall, muscular and somewhat youthful looking for his age, due to being a god. He had white hair even whilst a newborn child, continuing into early adulthood. His eyes have no pupils, being the same when he was in his early adulthood. But when he was a baby and in God of War II, his eyes had dark blue irises and black pupils. * It should be noted that, even though Zeus is the younger brother of Poseidon and Hades, he seems much older than the two. Given his ability to shape-shift, however, this could just be a matter of personal taste. In some sources, the regurgitating of Zeus' siblings is regarded as a rebirth of sorts, making Zeus both the youngest and oldest of his siblings. This, and the desire to command respect through age, could explain why he chooses to portray himself as older than his siblings. * In God of War, the Grave Digger that Kratos meets in his quest to destroy Ares has been confirmed to be Zeus in disguise, aiding Kratos in escaping the Underworld. This bears similarities to real Greek mythology, where the gods would often disguise themselves as humans in order to help them. * When Pandora's Box was first opened, Zeus was infected with Fear which caused him to grow more and more paranoid of Kratos overthrowing him. * According to God of War III, Zeus has had thoughts of revenge against his father Cronos since a very early age. On the ledge where Zeus' Eagle was found, a drawing of Cronos eating Zeus' siblings can be found. After taking a closer look to the right, another drawing can be seen, showing a stick figure, assumed to be Zeus, holding a sword and ripping open his father's insides to free its prisoners. * At the end of God of War III, when Kratos charged a weakened Zeus, just before pummeling him to death, a sort of black mist evaporated from Zeus' mouth. This could refer to Pandora's Evil that had infected him. * It is possible that Deimos' death in Ghost of Sparta made Zeus realize the prophecy was not referring to Deimos as the marked warrior, but Kratos instead. * Each time Kratos had died before he managed to kill Zeus, the son-killing-father cycle ended, yet Zeus always re-initiated the cycle one way or another. * In God of War III, when Kratos fights Zeus, the main theme music is Brothers of Blood. * Zeus will become one of the mentors for God of War: Ascension multiplayer. * Zeus is ranked on 49th place of the Top 100 Video-game Villains on IGN. * While fighting Zeus in the heart of Gaia, Zeus summons clones, although differences can be noticed between them and the original Zeus: the clones are much paler, not stained with blood and are much weaker. * It is revealed in Homer's Iliad, Zeus has many names: Zeus Thunderer, Zeus Cloud-gatherer, Zeus Cronin, Zeus All-seeing, Zeus All-wise, and Zeus Almighty. Related Pages * Statue of Zeus * Grave Digger * Zeus' Eagle, his Godly Possession. Category:Characters Category:Bosses Category:Gods Category:God of War Category:God of War II Category:God of War III Category:God of War Series Category:Allies Category:Enemies Category:God of War:Ghost of Sparta Category:God of War Collection Category:God of War Origins Collection Category:God of War:Ascension Category:God of War:Saga Collection